How God Made an Elephant's Trunk

Here's a video we took at the elephant exhibit, after one of the zookeepers had given an elephant some treats -- peanuts. This amazed me, because seeing how God designed an elephant's trunk to be so sensitive is incredible! The elephant can't see the peanuts because the wall is above her eye level, but she is seeking those treats out with her trunk! It moves almost like a hand in its sensitivity. As soon as she locates and grabs a few peanuts, she brings her trunk to her mouth to eat. Brad, December, and I all loved watching her eat!

Catching Up

Isaac spends his time divided among five places: crib, blanket on the floor, swing, car seat, and this: his bouncy seat. He loves it in here and is propped up to watch what the rest of the family is doing. He's very content to sit and kick his legs while keeping an eye on Mommy working in the kitchen. Oh, maybe his time is divided among six places -- because we love to hold him in our arms, too!

As you might guess, this look is courtesy of his big sister...

We went over to my friend Naomi's house to play, and here's a picture of the two Isaacs!

At the Wild Animal Park. Although it may look like we live at the Animal Park since we take pictures there so often, we truly don't...we just love going there! These were taken on the same day as all of those plant pictures were taken. Here's Isaac and his too-big hat!

Daddy and his little boy


We took the train around the African exhibits. It used to be difficult to take this train around because December was younger, couldn't see the animals very well, and loathed the confinement. Now she gets into it more, and it's enjoyable to ride around! As for Isaac, you'll see how he likes the train ride in the next picture.

For him, it's a lulling, soothing ride! He can't resist the gentle rocking -- it makes him sleepy.

Me pushing the surprisingly heavy double stroller. Or, more accurately, since we're on a hill, it's me trying to keep the stroller from rushing downhill and pulling my arms out as it does so...

I can tell Isaac is getting older, because his interest in toys is growing! I can't keep him on his back anymore -- as soon as I lay him on his back, he flips over to his belly and finds toys to amuse himself.

Some Daddy-baby bonding time (Isaac is mesmerized by the contrast on Daddy's shirt)

This picture makes me laugh. If only you could see how many layers Isaac has on in this picture! He's a little puffy blue marshmallow. It was FREEZING cold in our apartment that morning. The apartment below us was getting repainted, and they had kept all the windows closed overnight, which meant the paint fumes rose straight up to us and made our apartment smell. And I mean reek. Since paint fumes are bad for children to be breathing in, we opened all of our windows and had fans going, etc -- and that meant our apartment got cold! So the next morning, the temperature inside was 57 degrees F (13 degrees C) -- very cold! So in this picture Isaac is wearing 5 layers to keep him warm!


These last two pictures are of December at the park, in her favorite park contraption -- the swing. Every Tuesday is Park Day for us, when all of us seminary wives with young kids get together at different parks around the city and hang out together. We ALL enjoy it!

It's a Dr. Seuss World

One thing I love about living here is the assortment of plant life. Recently I decided that I don't take enough pictures of the fun plants here, so when Brad and I took the kids to the Wild Animal Park, I took pictures of plants instead of animals. The Wild Animal Park's collection of plants is actually worth more $$$ than their collection of animals! Pretty crazy!

Ever since we moved here, Brad has commented that many of the plants here look like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. As it turns out, he was right! We were watching PBS one night, and Mrs. Seuss was talking about her late husband. She said how he lived right in the area where we live, and he got the inspiration for his weird plants and creatures from the plants that grow naturally around here.

Here's a sampling (all taken at the Wild Animal Park):

(A close-up of the previous flower)

This is a picture of the tree above Brad's and Isaac's heads, and below is a close up of the flower that grows on it.

Pretty Dr. Seuss-esque, eh??

This is more of a landscape-type shot -- of the view we are very blessed to look at!

I wish that this picture was scratch-and-sniff. The wisteria hanging above Brad's and the kids' heads smells completely heavenly! A close-up, below...

Another landscape shot.

One of my favorites.

A tree in bloom (one of December's favorites...for reasons I think are obvious!)

And We're Back!

Hello!

I apologize about the lack of posting. There have been a number of things that have come up in our life here, but now I can with certainty say that it will be more regular again! As I have told you before, the laptop's busyness is synonymous with Brad's busyness. And this is the busiest semester of Brad's entire schooling, from kindergarten until this very semester! :o) We knew this semester would be like that, from seminarians who have gone along before us. I feel really bad for Brad, because he has so much on his plate! Five papers (and these aren't your quickie little ten-pagers...!), Greek and Hebrew reading notes, quizes, and exams around the corner. He and the laptop have been very busy. I can't wait until next year, which supposedly is a breeze compared to this year of seminary! The rest of this semester can't pass quickly enough.

The week of April 5 was Brad's Spring Break, and Brad's parents came out and visited us. What an incredibly fun-filled week! We had a blast with them and were so sorry to see them go. I'll post pictures of that. They will be pictures from Brad's Dad's camera, because when we went to the beach, we dropped the camera in the sand...and it did not survive, despite the heroic efforts of Brad and his father to completely dissect it and put it back together. So we currently have no camera.

Last week, I was down the entire week with a bout of food poisoning...ick. I am just now beginning to get over it, but that is surely something I would never wish on anybody! So, all of these things combined has ensured the laptop and I's certain separation -- and hence, the lack of posting. However, this week Brad got a new laptop (an HP Mini) that he's very fond of, and that means the old laptop can stay home! Yay! I can blog again! I've got so much to tell you and show you...